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Still injured, Jutanugarn WDs from LPGA Q-School

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Ariya Jutanugarn’s injured right shoulder is healing more slowly than she hoped.

Jutanugarn, 17, was signed up to play in the final stage of LPGA Q-School next month, but she withdrew on Monday, her manager told GolfChannel.com.

Jutanugarn, whose game is in a class with teen stars Lydia Ko and Lexi Thompson, tore the labrum in her right shoulder in a fall coming down a steep slope off a tee box in a practice round at the Wegmans LPGA Championship in June. She had surgery to repair the tear in July. She was ranked No. 15 in the Rolex women’s world rankings when she was injured.

“She can only do half swings,” Varuth Philwonnabha, her manger, said.

Jutanugarn, younger sister to Moriya, who is in the hunt for the 2013 LPGA Rookie of the Year, was making a huge impression in the LPGA and Ladies European Tour ranks before her injury.

Ariya took the professional ranks by storm as a rookie earlier this year, nearly winning the Honda LPGA Thailand while playing on a sponsor exemption in February. She lost a three-shot lead at the final hole to Inbee Park in heart-breaking fashion in the only LPGA event that is staged in her native Thailand. It was a notable run given Jutanugarn wanted to play LPGA Q-School last year but was denied a waiver of the tour’s rule requiring that members be at least 18 years old. A month after that difficult loss, Jutanugarn won the Ladies European Tour’s Meryem Cup.

In five LPGA starts via sponsor exemptions and Monday qualifying before her injury this season, Jutanugarn didn’t finish worse than a tie for fourth. She won $447,772 in those five starts.

Jutanugarn was exempt into the final stage of LPGA Q-School based on her world ranking.